When heavy rains washed out the low-lying towns around River Heights, my friends and I knew we had to help. That's when we hooked up with Helping Homes to build apartments. Then the two-time state champion basketball team, the Lowell University Bullets, showed up -- and the waters, so to speak, turned murky.

While George couldn't be happier about working close to J. C. Valdez, the Bullets' star forward, not everyone around us is a fan. Take the person who is destroying our work and spray painting threats to J. C. on the walls, for starters. Is this the product of some basketball feud, or something much larger? I may be up to my elbows in sheet rock, but that won't slow my sleuthing. . . .